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I need some reference dimensions for where the door sills go on the rocker panel. Mainly the interior black one. Maybe use the rocker seam as a reference?

Hi Dave, I totally get that about the repairs. Here are a few pics.

I'm sure I could manage to do the necessary repair work on the scoop, although I'd prefer not to! @CanTechZ , if you could send a couple of pictures that would be great. @Yarb, let me know whether yours is fiberglass and what sort of shape it's in. Thanks to both of you for responding! I'd really rather have a used part than a newly manufactured one!

Since the very rich AFR at idle I am experiencing with the N27's is not acceptable, I decided to order some SM needles and give them a shot. A comparison: While the differences at each used station are "small", they are evidently quite large when tuning SU carburetors, as I found out watching How SU carburetors work parts 1 through 4 here: https://www.youtube.com/@ACDodd/videos Anyway, they were only $40 delivered, so not an expensive thing. I swapped those in last weekend and made a few more runs to collect AFR. Doing so, I saw some changes and made some new observations. First the plots: Idle: I am quite happy with that. 14.7 to 1 is stoichiometric. For idle speed, I think that would be ideal. But I think this is great. cruise: For the recording of cruising above, I was mostly on flat road holding the speed at an indicated 50 mph in third. My RPMs are now being recorded, but honestly, I don't know which to believe, my tach, or the LM2, as there is a notable difference off of idle. Generally, the LM2 is reading higher by as much as ~500 rpm. I plan to notate some speeds in gears and tach and LM2 rpm readings and compare with calculated info based on transmission and differential ratios and tire diameter to see which is more accurate. Again, for cruising, I like the AFRs I am seeing here. I do not notice any surging or anything out of usual when slightly lean by this much while cruising. It should be good for fuel economy. acceleration: Now, for acceleration, I am less pleased. The first steep rise is first gear. I think I pressed record just after the light turned green and applied full throttle in first, then shifted to second and applied full throttle, then shifted to third and applied full throttle - very briefly. My focus points are seconds 2-3 and 6 to 8 and a half. For those, I am in a steady state - full throttle - flat road. In first, the AFR is a bit under 12. In second, it looks like about 12 to 12.2. So, rich. What got really interesting is that when I shifted to third and again applied full throttle, the engine essential "stopped" as the AFR spiked up to north of 20. I suspect the float bowls went dry. I was able to repeat this a second time. So, I will need to investigate this further. Now that I have watched the video series mentioned above, I will plan out my next steps differently. I won't be messing with needles for now. I need to check the springs in the carburetor to see if they are original and in good condition. And I need to investigate my dampers. They may have too much wear. One of the indications that I have an issue with either the springs or the dampers is that (and this is with both the N27 and the SM needles), the AFR is going extreme lean on throttle off deceleration. It is worse with the SM needles - going north of 20. But it is bad with the N27s as well, going north of 18. Lots of popping out of the exhaust... Based on the info in the videos, that is either spring or damper.

I've got one that is in fair shape, It is FRP. It does have a few cracks and one of the studs is broken off half way down, but definitely still useable with a bit of repair work. Let me know if you would like some pics. I'm in BC.

So Driver’s side fiberglass. Let me put a magnet on it just to check. I have both left and right hand sides. I’ll check it out when I get to my shop today.

Indeed I do. I gave up on finding one used, and ordered one from MSA, who originally said they had one in stock, but a week later found that they didn't and are now forecasting 6-8 weeks to get one. If you have one, I'm interested!

Almost any condition will do. Just needs to be able to light up. The cheaper the better

Do you still need the scoop?

I had the thought that there is probably some patent literature about it out there and found one that describes a design whose purpose is to isolate the sound/vibration from the car body. It's translated from Chinese so makes for a weird read. In short, I think it stops the people in the car from feeling the vibration. Buzzy butt, probably. It's from 2008. https://patents.google.com/patent/CN201300772Y/en I tried to find a patent from around the Z time frame but patent searching is hard. I did find this though. Radar equipped cars in 1972. https://patents.google.com/patent/US3833906A/en

Thanks Alan, that was one of my suspicions for the reason but they changed the horn mounting to a steel bracket but mounted on a center rear stud in later years. So I wasn't sure... I have looked at them pretty closely. It is one of the parts I have considered reproducing. Because of the construction they are difficult to coat properly and they corrode badly because of the spaces between the plates. Not a complicated part to reproduce but they would probably be sort of costly because I would have to have someone cut me all the plates

As far as I understand it (and I've seen the same thing on several different makes of old cars) they act as a spring/damper, which has a positive effect on the sound quality and also insulates the mountings from high frequency vibration when the horn sounds. But they certainly have an air of late 1860s rather than late 1960s, so I empathise with your curiosity.

So the last few weeks I have been working on cleaning up some hardware for plating. I am pulling together hardware that all needs to be clear zinc. I haven't been able to use my Caswell system to get good results on some of these larger pieces so I am going to ship a lot of clear zinc to them for barrel plating... Question for those who know, why are the horn standoffs made this way with the six layers of really thin metal? Does anyone know? @Zed Head @HS30-H On another item does anyone know how to reproduce this spring? It cause the door handle lever to return. It's 1mmx2mm flat stock turned into a spring. Is there a source for this stock that I could bend my own spring? One of my locks had very little of this spring left

I ordered them from Godzilla Raceworks about 4 years ago. The distribution center/configuration department is in Orlando Fl. I received them in less than a week since I’m right next door so to speak. Godzilla originally said it might be a few weeks if they didn’t have the Swift springs in stock. The paper work/instructions were very thorough. I disassembled the shocks and cut the tubes. Took them to the metal fabricator next door and he welded them for me. Can’t remember if it’s front or rear but it’s crucial because they were marked L/R.

Who did you source these parts from? Did you do your own coilover strut welding?

I had to educate myself on Swift springs. Found this helpful. Sounds to me like it would be worth the extra cost. Found this one with good Coilover 101 info too.

For those of us that aren’t on Facebook, I’ve noticed lately folks are not using the Classified section.

The reason I originally went with coil over shocks was I removed the ridicules bumpers off of my 78 280z and replaced with them with the 240 series style. I removed the bumpers/crash absorbers and that weight itself, with the stronger springs allowed the car to raise well over 2”. I could have gone in a different direction but the coil overs gave me the opportunity to dial in the height. The Swift springs from Japan gave it a softer ride. It handles great and glad I went the route I did. Considerable fabrication involved. IMO well worth it.

Do you like them? Is it a noticeable upgrade?

$100 each sounds like a bargain! Good luck with the Spring cleaning.

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Yeah interesting to watch your baby during this auction! Hope you can get to the reserve mark. A few more days to know for sure! But hey I am partial to the color... not sure what this guy has against yellow.. lol

Hoping someone can use these and advise me on a good selling price. NO MOUNTING FLATS were built into these I bought these when I was all caught up in making my 280Z look like a 240Z. I did the common sense thing and found a 240Z I could afford. They do not have mounting points, the guy told me they were for race cars and to bolt them up as I saw best. I've had them in storage for 10 years or more. Here's where I bought them... https://www.ztrix.com/bumper $100 each? If you want them let's talk because I want them gone, spring cleaning time. I'll add pictures of mine later today. Thanks for any replies. Cliff Oh yeah, I have an E31 bare head with larger steel valve seats installed I was going to put my cam kit on but found a P90 head that I'll use instead. Pictures later and then somebody can help me put a dollar figure on it? It came with a 240Z I bought in 2013.